President Kennedy in Ireland, 1963
(Photo Courtesy of JFK Library)
John Kerry, US Secretary of State, has published his reflections of President John F. Kennedy's historic visit to Ireland in June 1963. In an essay titled
The Legacy of JFK: Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of His Visit to Ireland, Secretary Kerry remarked on "the spirit and idealism of the Kennedy years" and what that meant to his generation growing up in the Cold War era.
"I particularly remember watching the news on a little black and white
television set as America’s first Catholic President returned to the
land of his heritage to celebrate a moment of pride on both sides of the
Atlantic and a remarkable reminder that the United States was a nation
of immigrants focused on the future but deeply proud of its roots," Kerry says.
This past week, Caroline Kennedy and her family returned to Ireland to retrace her father's visit fifty years ago, stopping in New Ross, County Wexford, from where the Kennedy family originated, and Bruff, County Limerick, where the Fitzgeralds came from.
For more information on President Kennedy, visit the
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, located in Boston, Massachusetts.